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AutoCAD Mechanical

(51)

4.0 out of 5 stars

AutoCAD® Mechanical design software is AutoCAD software built for manufacturing. Part of the Digital Prototyping solution, it includes all the functionality of AutoCAD, plus libraries of standards-based parts and tools to help automate common mechanical CAD tasks and accelerate the mechanical design process.

What do you like best?

The overall look of AutoCAD Mechanical 2018 is very similar to past versions of the last few years but has some added visualization improvements that make working in it a little more comfortable for beginners and legacy users alike. The previews of commands while applying them gives you a great visual on what you are about to do to help you avoid re-work or re-inputs of commands.

What do you dislike?

For an old school designer like myself, I have not liked the push to eliminate the classic menus. Whenever I deploy new installations within my company, I spend time customizing certain some workstations to utilize the classic menu's including my own. I can work a lot faster using classic menus and icons to do the work than I can with the Ribbon style of commands. In 2018 versions, I have noticed that some of the classic menus are no longer available. This is a bad move by Autodesk in my opinion. Since about 2015 or so, they have hidden the classic menus and they have to be turned on using the MENUBAR (from 0 to 1) and the -TOOLBAR command lines to get your toolbars turned back on. Be sure to save your customized WORKSPACE when you are finished.

Recommendations to others considering the product

If you are a old school classic user/administrator like me, turn on the classic menubar using the command MENUBAR and set the parameter from 0 to 1. Then use the -TOOLBAR (must include the dash) and enter STANDARD which will turn on the standard toolbar. You can then drag that toolbar to the side and then right-click in the gray area close to the toolbar and see the selection of other classic toolbars to turn on. For most now, you will use the RIBBON style (similar to MS Office programs) for commands. Either way, this is a great and easy to use design program that can assist any level of user for many applications.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

We use AutoCAD Mechanical for some 2D layouts and a lot of electrical schematics. As an engineering firm, AutoCAD Mechanical is very useful for our designs and internal projects. While INVENTOR is used for most designs of parts and assemblies these days, there are some things you just can't do with INVENTOR or at least do simply with INVENTOR that AutoCAD Mechanical can do.

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What do you like best?

Great program for doing floor plans & plant layouts, this also works great for doing gaskets and some sheet metal flat patterns. another benefit of this program is it works in several engineering areas like civil, arch and Mech.

What do you dislike?

I wish there was more dynamic input change line length by adjusting the dimension. finding commands and buttons as well as creating drawings and printing can be a challenge.

Recommendations to others considering the product

If you are purely doing 2D type work this is good software if you are doing anything 3D this software will not work. it can be difficult to learn if you are not familiar with drafting or drafting software.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

I used it for machine stack ups and floor layouts. Its an almost universal software/file type almost anyone in industry can open & read and/or modify the drawings make it great for collaboration and working with customers to get exactly what they need/want

What do you like best?

It's simple, intuitive, and can still be used by those of us who originally learned AutoCAD. It's a familiar package and continues to support legacy CAD packages. It's easy to manipulate in 2d, and works fantastically for drawings, especially when you might want to highlight certain features or geometry without recreating the part or creating section views (in simple terms).

What do you dislike?

Newer CAD platforms seem to offer so much more, in terms of user-friendliness and intuitive GUI. There are still a few basic things that AutoCAD should be able to do that it does not, in terms of advanced tools, surfacing, and complex features and assemblies. But typically, if you're using AutoCAD, you aren't in need of those things.

Recommendations to others considering the product

If you have some repetitive drawing work that you need for production, this would be my go-to, especially for relatively simple assemblies that might just need a few small geometric or length changes. Anything more complex, like complex 3d assembly, advanced mates, features, or surfaces, I'd probably recommend something else.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

CAD for conveying family-type cable assemblies and repetitive drawing features and tables that other CAD programs are too cumbersome to use (due to being too feature rich).

What do you like best?

AutoCAD is perhaps the easiest CAD package to generate a 2D drawing, sketch, sheet metal flat, etc. Since at its core, it is mainly just a sketcher, it is one of the easiest CAD programs to pick up and run with, whether as a first-time user or an occasional one. While not in my current field, I have used it in the past for things like building floorplans and could see the usability advantage for something like that.

What do you dislike?

3D modeling is simply not intuitive or all that capable. I suppose it could be used similarly to any direct modeling package, but there are countless others that do what it does much more quickly and easily.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Your industry will dictate whether AutoCAD is the right package for you. If everyone else is using it, there is probably a reason. But for more and more industries, AutoCAD is being left out as a needed skill.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

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